Last Laugh
by DreamScene
Summary: Haruhi is not like other girls, that much is a given. And she just might wind up with the punchline when it comes to Hikaru, even if she doesn't realize it.
1. Jester

A/N: Just thought I'd contribute to some Haruhi/Hikaru loving. These two are awesome together.

Wrote these in a day. Whew!

Drop me a note and let me know what you think. Thanks!

* * *

Haruhi Fujioka is not like other girls, that much is a given.

She slouches, dresses like a boy and mostly speaks in a deadpan tone. And she's also very pretty, although she easily forgets, no matter how many times they've dressed her up on different occasions. He would know, since he's handpicked most of the outfits she ends up wearing.

Despite this, Hikaru's come to notice the little things about her.

There is the instantaneous irritation that emerges when Tamaki cries about her latest haircut (too short for his liking) and sweeps her up into a bear hug that has her legs swinging around the room several times. Or incredulity when Kyoya gives her an update on the state of her account of debt to the club that causes her to hyperventilate in the corner while cursing about useless things that only rich people would think to buy.

Aside from shock and annoyance, there are also the moments when she's clearly endeared by something other than food. Like when Hunny hugs the stuffing out of Usa-chan during his nap time. Or when Mori is being protective of his younger cousin.

There's a subtle quality to the grin she hides behind a hand.

That smile is more obvious at different times.

Hikaru sees it when he's goofing around with Kaoru for her amusement, cracking jokes about Tamaki and Kyoya. This time they've decided to re-create the spinning motion of Tamaki's hug and Kyoya's cold remarks about money. Their impressions are dead-on accurate.

And when they do break through that mask of indifference and she actually laughs, it's his shoulder she holds on to as she doubles over. Hikaru feels the way her slender fingers dig into the fabric of his jacket and over her head, sees the knowing look of approval on Kaoru's face. He wonders if he looks the same way, although the tell-tale sign for him is that his face feels entirely too warm to be identical to his brother.

Laughter sputters out of her as she finally composes herself and wipes her eyes.

"You guys are too funny," she says and smacks him lightly on the back.

Her large, dark eyes settle on him with a sweet smile and he feels himself melt.

Behind her, Kaoru is quietly gushing over the scene and barely manages to keep it in by biting his lip. With that watery gaze, he's clearly dying to say, "aww."

Spurred on by her response, Hikaru takes the moment to do something stupid: he bows elaborately in front of Haruhi before taking her hand and kisses her knuckles.

"For you, my dear, anything," he says smoothly.

Kaoru thinks that his twin might as well be wearing a jester's outfit. There was no way Haruhi was going to fall for that.

This time she blushes when he looks up with that goofy smile. He doesn't let go of her hand immediately.

Kaoru stands corrected and raises his eyebrows. He pushes down the need to applaud. He nods to his brother as a sign of a well played game, but Hikaru doesn't notice it since he can't stop keep his eyes off Haruhi.


	2. Disarray

A/N: Not necessarily related to the first chapter. But I still they're awesome together.

Onward!

* * *

Hikaru does it on a dare.

Maybe. Kinda. Sorta.

It's not as if Kaoru goaded him into it. His twin has never even mentioned it. So that excuse is not valid. And he's not even around to pin the blame on him anyway.

And Tamaki has been nowhere near them for hours. He's honestly glad that their fearless leader is not around to be irritating by monopolizing Haruhi's attention as always. Kyoya is also not present to order her around to do chores and even Hunny is missing and not asking if she'll join his tea party of monstrous sweets.

Hikaru stares at his hands, uncertain.

It's just that she was staring at him with those eyes.

Then she just had to go and reach for his face to pinch an eyelash off his cheek.

"Make a wish," she says, taking his hand and pressing her thumb against his.

Before he has a chance to make a remark about commoners' superstitions, she leans in to kiss their joined fingers. For luck, she says.

Hikaru doesn't bother to think it through as he moves forward instead, past their thumbs and closer to her to press his lips against hers.

This is far worse than the time he licked a snowflake off her cheek last winter. He'd done it without much prompting and, as usual, on a whim. Those seem to appear most often around her, he notes in retrospect. At least then, Haruhi just brushed it off by laughing at him as she wiped her face and asked when he'd turned into a puppy. His obvious response was to bark playfully. And then to pull on the sleeve of her jacket with his teeth as a joke. She got back at him later by stuffing a snowball down the back of shirt and ran off laughing before he tackled her.

When he pulls back, afraid and wary, he's slow to look at her. He chooses to stare downward at the nervous shaking of his hands instead. And not because Tamaki is going to kill him when he finds out.

Of course, he's met with her dumbfounded expression when he finally lifts his gaze. She's touching her lips and all he can think is that he wants to move her hand and kiss her again without feeling guilty about it.

Eventually, she looks down.

The eyelash sticks to her.

He glances down to confirm and yes - there it is - right in the middle of her thumb. He's awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck as she stares at him.

"So-uh, what'd you wish for?" he asks.

She makes him feel like a stuttering idiot. He easily towers over her, but at the moment, he's never felt so small and vulnerable.

He sees the movement of her legs as she moves to stand up and looks down again to see that the trembling has not abated in his limbs. No doubt she'd storm out for that stupid move. And then she'd really hate him, which was even worse.

"Fancy tuna," she finally replies.

He looks up to see her on the other side of his desk.

"But I'll settle for this," she says.

Her fingers close around his tie and drag him forward. Her lips come in contact with the smooth skin of his forehead.

Later on, when he walks into the music room in a daze, a shade of fever pink is splattered liberally over his cheeks. His eyes are suspiciously bright and unfocused, even dreamy as the the back of his hand keeps going to his forehead. Hikaru is flattened against columns when he repeatedly runs into them and trips over everything else when he moves.

Kaoru is visibly distressed, wailing about Hikaru catching something when he goes sleepwalking in his underwear in the middle of the night or from eating whatever the new cook made last night. Everyone hears him blames himself for the misfortune of losing his brother.

Haruhi rolls her eyes, thinking his melodramatic antics are over the top from that little kiss. She somehow manages to keep a straight face, going as far as pinching her arm repeatedly to keep herself from laughing.


	3. Antics

A/N: A little more for anyone who cares to look. I'm treating these as one-shot compilations.

Enough of this. Go read!

* * *

Lately, he's gotten to be as bad as Tamaki.

There's whining and some crying when she insists on doing certain things herself. But it's when she brings it up and points out the similarities that Hikaru crosses his arms and looks stricken by the offense.

"Lies!" he declares in that theatrical tone with a single finger in the air. He storms off in the usual dramatic manner.

She sighs, unable to keep up with his mood swings, not that she has the energy to try. The upcoming calculus test is on her mind, along with the two essays for literature, the presentation for physics and a research paper for history.

She sprawls out near the piano, pulls out her textbooks and goes to work on her assignments.

She doesn't look up for a long time, except for when a heavy bag settles on the table beside her. She's done with her essays by that point and gathers up her notes for that research paper.

A notebook and several pens later and he's seated next to her, under the same barricade of books.

There's this very prim and proper air about him as he neatly scribbles equations. He looks like the epitome of a snob plucked from her unconscious. The image is likely to stay with her for a long time. She cradles her chin in her palm and hides a smile behind her fingers.

She's rather impressed at his ability to stay still and focus for an extended period of time. It's never really crossed her mind that he capable of such a feat.

But then his attention span doesn't want to cooperate and soon enough, he's doodling on the margins of her schoolwork. Too engrossed with a series of stick figures, the page slides away from her and in front of him.

Her pen hits the surface of the table with a little more force than necessary.

"Can I help you?" she demands, although he doubts the sincerity of her offer.

He looks up with a sheepish smile. An eyebrow raises, much like the way she looks when she's about to reprimand Tamaki.

He holds up his calculus book, almost shielding himself behind it.

"Mind helping me with a few calculus problems before the test tomorrow?"

She grips the edge of the textbook, lowering it until she can see his eyes.

"What part?" she asks.

He promptly opens it up to the latest chapter.

"I didn't quite get this part," he tells her and points to a section with the eraser end of his pencil.

She pulls out a clean sheet and proceeds to explain while writing out the process.

"The first thing you do is this," she begins.

He actually listens. It's one of the few times he's been serious at all about anything. For one thing, it beats out the relentless teasing, although she can't accurately recalled the last time she's been part of the joke for him and Kaoru. He's been rather sweet on her lately, even giving her a break once in a while, she realizes. More so than the other guys.

He nods while she's lecturing and finds that she's a capable teacher. At the end of it, she's swept up in an enormous hug that nearly has his arms circling her twice.

This close, it doesn't hurt that he smells really nice, too. It almost makes her forget that he's a rich bastard.


	4. Prankster

A/N: One more!

Drop me a note or a few words, pretty please.

* * *

It's only fair.

The same words keep chanting in her mind the longer she doodles a graphing equation. She makes tiny marks on the x and y-axis. While normally calm, even to the point of aloofness, Haruhi feels driven by revenge.

Besides, he always does much worse things to her. Like when he kept sending her silly text messages in the middle of class the other day, even during an exam. And there was the time when he rigged the random drawing of lab partners to be assigned with her and wound up setting their assignment on fire. Or that other time when he swapped her pick of photos and replaced them with ridiculous cosplay shots for their history presentation of ancient warriors. It didn't really matter that the girls in the class actually stood up to applaud them for that last one. He'd gone as far as taking her hand and bowing dramatically as if it was end of a performance.

Because it would take nothing short of a miracle to keep her from losing her scholarship. And so far, she'd been able to hold on to the top spot in their class. But it didn't excuse his behavior.

Still, with his eyes open and the marker in her hand, she's been caught.

But then, he merely smiles at her, turning over so that his head lays over her lap. He looks absurdly sweet (more so than Hunny, even) as he's curled up for a nap on the spacious couch.

She pauses for a few minutes, but it's not enough to deter her as she continues drawing on his face. He winds up with dots on his eyelids, angular brows, a swirly mustache and math equations complete with graphs on his cheeks.

It'll be a few hours later the girls pile in for the host club that he's confused by laughter not caused by his jokes. Even the long-standing losing streak of the "Let's Guess the Hikaru Game" will finally be beaten by someone other than Haruhi, who has accepted Hunny's invitation for cake and tea.


End file.
